Home Office

Homicide

Mrs Andrea Jenkyns: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the ONS statistical release of 13 February 2020, Homicide in England and Wales: year ending March 2019, what steps her Department is taking to reduce trends in the number of (a) baby girls and (b) toddlers being killed.

Victoria Atkins: Every child’s death is a tragedy. That is why the Government has called on everyone who comes into contact with babies, children and families to recognise the role we all play in keeping them safe, and the need to work together to identify concerns, share information and take prompt action.As part of this, the Government has already taken the following steps: We are transforming the way local safeguarding agencies work together, having placed a new duty on the local authority, police and health leaders to produce new safeguarding partnerships arrangements. This will ensure a more effective and collaborative response in safeguarding children, which has been especially important in light of emerging risks during the lockdown period. We have been working closely with statutory partners and wider stakeholders who may be coming into contact with vulnerable children at this time to ensure that safeguarding concerns continue to be reported and acted upon. We have created a new system of practice reviews, overseen by the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, to ensure that lessons are quickly and robustly learned when a serious incident or death of a child occurs. The Panel have recently announced that their third national review will focus on non-accidental injury in children under one. Government has welcomed this review and will consider the Panel’s findings in detail once published. We reintroduced the Domestic Abuse Bill in March 2020 to better protect and support the victims of abuse and their children and bring perpetrators to justice. The Bill transferred to the Lords on 7 July having completed its Commons stages.

Detention Centres: Coronavirus

David Linden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on the legal implications of immigration detention during the covid-19 outbreak.

Chris Philp: As part of the Department’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic the Home Secretary had frequent and regular conversations with Cabinet colleagues including considering the impact on immigration detention.Immigration Enforcement has responded to the unique circumstances of the coronavirus outbreak and are following the latest guidance from Public Health England. On 26 March, the High Court ruled that our approach to detention and Coronavirus was sensible, with the appropriate precautionary measures in place.Further guidance on managing COVID-19 in immigration removal centres was published on gov.uk on 5 June https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-immigration-removal-centres.

Marriage: Video Conferencing

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether virtual meetings can take place with the registrar for weddings.

Chris Philp: Meetings to complete the legal preliminaries of giving notice for a marriage or civil partnership must be conducted in the presence of the relevant registration official and cannot take place virtually.

Asylum: Birmingham

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will provide an update on the progress being made in resolving the issues contained in the letter from her Department, reference M560/20, in relation to tackling the unresolved issues with the asylum contingency accommodation at the Rowton Hotel in Birmingham.

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the issues with the Serco Group referred to in the letter from her Department, reference M560/20 have been resolved; and if she will give an update on the progress being made to reduce the use of contingency accommodation for asylum dispersal in the West Midlands.

Chris Philp: The letter referred to in the questions (M560/20) was regarding the use of the Rowton Hotel as contingency accommodation and was responded to in February 2020.Due to the Covid 19 crisis and the pause on cessations of asylum support there was a growth in the number of people needing accommodation and that in order to meet that growth, we would have to procure hotel accommodation as contingency and hotel use in Birmingham has continued. The use of hotels as contingency accommodation is temporary and once restrictions on movement are lifted, the providers will work to move all individuals in contingency accommodation into suitable accommodation.We will programme the reduction of the number of people in supported accommodation in a controlled manner. Consideration will be given to the needs of service users whilst balancing the impact of increased accommodation pressures on local authorities. We intend to work collaboratively with local authorities as we transition out of lockdown.

Immigrants: Finance

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for variance of the no recourse to public funds condition her Department received since the start of March 2020.

Chris Philp: The information you have requested is not currently published by the department.The department has written to the UKSA with regard to this matter. Please see the link below:https://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence/response-from-daniel-shaw-to-ed-humpherson-parliamentary-question-response/.We are continuing to investigate whether the administrative data held by the department can provide any meaningful data in future and will provide an update in due course.

Identity Cards

Scott Benton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing compulsory ID cards for British nationals; and when her Department last reviewed its policy on ID cards.

Kevin Foster: The Home Office has made no recent assessment on compulsory ID cards. The previous identity card scheme was abolished by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government in 2010.

Department of Health and Social Care

Abortion: Drugs

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that abortion pills taken at home are being taken under the 10-week gestation limit.

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many women have taken abortion pills at home after the 10-week gestation period limit; and what steps he has taken to ensure the pills are taken within the specified limit.

Helen Whately: Holding answer received on 30 June 2020



The Department is carefully monitoring the impact of and compliance with the temporary approval of home administration of both sets of abortion medication during the COVID-19 pandemic. Officials have regular meetings with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Care Quality Commission and abortion service providers.The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has issued clinical guidelines for healthcare professionals on ‘Coronavirus infection and abortion care’. The guidance sets out the circumstances where women should be asked to attend a clinic for an ultra-sound scan. However, it states that “most women can determine the gestational age of their pregnancy with reasonable accuracy by last menstrual period (LMP) alone”. The Royal College’s guidance has recently been updated and now includes a decision aid for clinicians to use to help determine if an ultra-sound scan is required. This includes detailed questions to identify gestational age. Women are given clear advice that they can only receive this treatment at home if they are under 10 weeks gestation.As part of the consultation prior to treatment commencing, women will be clearly informed that medical abortion is a two-stage process which requires the administration of Mifepristone followed by Misoprostol to successfully complete the procedure.The Code of Practice outlined in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 prohibits the pre-release of official statistics before the due date of publication. The Department will be publishing an additional official statistics release of abortion data covering the COVID-19 period from January to June 2020 on 10 September.

Social Services: Badges

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department regularly monitors the number of CARE badges that are distributed.

Helen Whately: Holding answer received on 16 July 2020



Since the Secretary of State’s announcement, around 15,000 badges have been distributed at no cost to social care providers or members of the workforce.To increase supply, additional badges of recognition have been procured by the Government and we expect to be able to start distribution of these badges shortly. Details of how they will be distributed to people working in social care will be available in due course.